At this stage garden design was fairly international in character and more or less uniform throughout Europe. The Germans imitated the Italian Renaissance style but readily switched to the grand geometric French style when it became dominant.
The main historical contribution of Germany has been a numerical one- in the sixteenth century there were more gardens in Germany than in any other country in Europe-and a certain exaggeration of the elements in any style they adopted. The French formal style of gardening also flourished in the sandy soil of Holland, on a smaller and less sophisticated scale but with more emphasis on hedges, fantastic topiary and decorative planting. Their box-edged formal beds were tilled with tulips in the spring, brought hack from the Middle East. The Dutch were responsible, through their trading and through their rise as a colonial power, for the introduction of much imported plant material- from China, America, South Africa and many other countries. They introduced the lilac, the pelargonium and the chrysanthemum into Europe and popularized tulips and many other bulbs.
In the same way that English medieval gardens remained pale counterparts of the elegant and colourful enclosures found in Europe, the gardens of English royalty and aristocracy developed on the lines of Italian and French Renaissance layouts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were, however, less rigorously formal, since the English climate is more conducive to mixed planting. There was also a developing interest in horticulture and a new emphasis on flowers grown for their appearance rather than for culinary and medicinal use.
While Europe was following the fashionable style of the English landscape garden, the quite different Victorian age of gardening writings of Miss Jekyll and William Robinson also coincided with the restoraWon and rehabilitation of long-neglected smaller country houses, farmhouses and cottages and their ideas appealed equally to Mese self-sufficient gardeners. Gertrude Jekyll invented the herbaceous border, planted with roses, shrubs and hardy plants, which has an element of romanticism always associated with the traditional English cottage garden.
Men like London and Wise set up the first commercial nurseries and began selling plants throughout the land.
The twentieth century has seen large gardens become an economic impossibility and small ones multiply. Garden cities have been conceived and built, each house having its own individual garden.
The main historical contribution of Germany has been a numerical one- in the sixteenth century there were more gardens in Germany than in any other country in Europe-and a certain exaggeration of the elements in any style they adopted. The French formal style of gardening also flourished in the sandy soil of Holland, on a smaller and less sophisticated scale but with more emphasis on hedges, fantastic topiary and decorative planting. Their box-edged formal beds were tilled with tulips in the spring, brought hack from the Middle East. The Dutch were responsible, through their trading and through their rise as a colonial power, for the introduction of much imported plant material- from China, America, South Africa and many other countries. They introduced the lilac, the pelargonium and the chrysanthemum into Europe and popularized tulips and many other bulbs.
In the same way that English medieval gardens remained pale counterparts of the elegant and colourful enclosures found in Europe, the gardens of English royalty and aristocracy developed on the lines of Italian and French Renaissance layouts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were, however, less rigorously formal, since the English climate is more conducive to mixed planting. There was also a developing interest in horticulture and a new emphasis on flowers grown for their appearance rather than for culinary and medicinal use.
While Europe was following the fashionable style of the English landscape garden, the quite different Victorian age of gardening writings of Miss Jekyll and William Robinson also coincided with the restoraWon and rehabilitation of long-neglected smaller country houses, farmhouses and cottages and their ideas appealed equally to Mese self-sufficient gardeners. Gertrude Jekyll invented the herbaceous border, planted with roses, shrubs and hardy plants, which has an element of romanticism always associated with the traditional English cottage garden.
Men like London and Wise set up the first commercial nurseries and began selling plants throughout the land.
The twentieth century has seen large gardens become an economic impossibility and small ones multiply. Garden cities have been conceived and built, each house having its own individual garden.
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